Serena dominates with her athleticism

Australian Open

Posted: Sunday, January 23, 2000

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - Notwithstanding Martina Hingis' catty appraisal of her "quite heavy" figure, Serena Williams is sprinting on court with the light-footed elan she flashed in their U.S. Open final.

The rust that clung to Williams in her first two matches at the Australian Open, three months after her last tournament, is all but gone. In beating Sabine Appelmans 6-2, 7-6 (2) Saturday night (late Friday/early Saturday CST), Williams hit balls almost as cleanly as she did when she beat Hingis for the U.S. Open title.

There were the five aces at up to 115 mph, the volleys she crushed, the deep, topspin forehands that flew away from Appelmans, and, most impressively, the shots Williams walloped on the fly from midcourt.

It was an athletic ballet by a dancer in red sneakers, complete with leaps and pirouettes.

Whether playing in the breezy chill before the rain early in the second set, or playing under the closed roof the rest of the way, the third-seeded Williams exhibited controlled power.

"She hits her forehand with a lot of topspin," Appelmans, ranked No. 31, said. "I was expecting it to be a lot harder and flatter. It was very hard, but it's different from the other girls. It's more like how the men play."

To see Williams at full throttle is to behold a player capable of revolutionizing women's tennis. She has a big baseline game and a serve-and-volley attack reminiscent of Martina Navratilova's, but quicker, stronger and, in some ways, more daring.

Williams is not yet as dedicated to the serve-and-volley style as was Navratilova, hesitating on charges at times, and no doubt will have lapses in matches like any 18-year-old. Serve-and-volleyers typically take longer to mature than baseline players, yet Williams is well on her way.

Unlike her sister, Venus, or most of the other top players, Williams is thickly muscled, especially in the legs, back and shoulders. But she is toned like a body builder, and certainly not flabby as Hingis suggested.

"Serena is quite heavy," said Hingis, who could meet her in the semifinals. Then, throwing in a backhanded compliment, she added, "She lost weight, I think, since I saw her last time."

Told about that remark, Williams started to respond, then stopped and giggled.

"I'm not going to say anything," she said. "Oh, that was close, wow. Let's go on to the next question."

But the next question, and the many that followed on the same subject of why she originally was going to skip the Australian Open and why she and Venus don't play the same tournaments more often, made Williams fume.

"I don't know why I wasn't going to come," she said. "I'm tired of talking about why I was coming and why I wasn't. I just changed my mind. I thought that if I didn't come that maybe my ranking would slip because I saw that Mary Pierce was coming up behind me. I know she always does good here. She won it, she was in the semis, so I knew, maybe I should come."

She said she and Venus "usually do our own schedules separately," and that both are free to go wherever they want.

In deciding where and how much to play, though, Williams said she is keeping in mind the rankings race in a bid to move up from No. 4 to No. 1. The top ranking, she said, is a serious ambition "now more than ever."

"Everyone is in the race for the top," she said. "No one is kidding around these days. Everyone from the 100th player to the No. 1 player is fighting. Martina, Lindsay (Davenport), they are fighting. They don't want to give it up. I won't either, so it's going to be a battle."